While it is true that haze has not killed many directly, an
atmosphere obscured by the suspension of these fine particles can have many
other direct and indirect socio-economic consequences on society.

Most obviously, a society will face problems with physical
mobility. Due to the haze, visibility drops, and the air quality drops, giving
it a singing smell. This discourages people from leaving their homes. This is
especially so if the haze comes swiftly and unexpectedly like the one Singapore
experienced during the 2013 June holidays. However, this is just the tip of the
iceberg. Environment related issues may seem like an inherent harm, but these
issues can bring about greater ills in society as well.

Most tangibly, health problems arise. Especially when those
with breathing problems like asthma and chronic bronchitis leave their homes
without the proper precaution like the N95 masks, the perils of the haze are
exacerbated. In worse cases like the haze in the South-East Asian region of
1997, a plane collided into a mountainside of Medan, killing all 256 passengers
– this was attributed to poor visibility that is coupled with the haze.

This then leads to hospital bed crunches. In the case of
Singapore, in the short span of a week or so, the National University Hospital
(NUH) has seen a 10% increase in patients, and this caused a lack of beds
considering the dengue spike prior to the haze episode. Certainly, experiencing
these illnesses affects society’s quality of living in general.

Down the line, government expenditure on healthcare rises
consequentially for the public is unsatisfied with the lack of beds due to the
spike in health-related cases. Recognising that budget is limited and that we
cannot “have the cake and eat it”, this health expenditure comes at an
opportunity cost – it would mean less spending on other areas like housing or
transport. These are all the indirect consequences of the haze that one cannot
physically experience.

Besides health, social interaction is compromised as well – most
directly people cannot attend go outdoors to meet friends or engage in personal
activities like exercise. This may seem very much minor, but these small things
add up to alter the way of life of the community for the worse. It is also
worth noting that the extension of the haze is proportional to the limits
placed on the choices of the people.

That’s not all there is to the haze – on top of
health-related issues, there are economic consequences as well. Most obviously,
tourism drops. Hotel rooms, travel groups and flights are cancelled, bringing tangible
economic losses that, once again, are proportional to the duration of the haze.
However, more insidiously is the impact on economic work in and of itself. People
are less willing to go outdoors to work, more likely to call in sick, and more
likely to give excuses, legitimate or not. This is pernicious not because of
the pure number of hours lost, but that coupled with the fact that it is a
sudden occurrence – the 30 hours lost, for instance, is not spread evenly over
the entire year, but rather is concentrated in that one week. This deals great
blows to businesses not only in terms of unexpected drops in revenue, but also
to their reputation – people see them as less reliable. As a corollary of this,
Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) lose out because they depend very much on a
solid, constant customer support, rather than pure quality-based attraction of
customers.

Certainly, the haze problem, usually existent in SEA, has
and will continue to cause the above social and economic problems, direct and
indirectly, in the short term and long term.